Introducing 3ds Max® 2008

Chapter 8. Introduction to Animation

The best way to learn how to animate is to jump right in and start animating. You will begin this chapter by picking up the Mobile exercise from Chapter 2, "Your First Max Animation," and adding animation to the shapes of the mobile. You'll take a good look at 3ds Max's animation tools so you can start editing animation and training your timing skills.

Topics in this chapter include:

• Hierarchy in Animation: The Mobile Redux

• Using Dummy Objects

• The Bouncing Ball

• Using the Track Editor-Curve Editor

• Track View

• Anticipation and Momentum in Knife Throwing

Hierarchy in Animation The Mobile Redux

Do you remember way back when you were reading Chapter 2? Those were good times, weren't they? After setting up the mobile in that exercise, you animated only the bars to rotate, but you left the rotation of the shapes for later. In this chapter, you'll pick up where you left off with the mobile from Chapter 2 and finish the animation using the hierarchies that were set up in that exercise.

Note

If you skipped the Mobile exercise in Chapter 2, you may want to try it now before you move on with this animation exercise. Understanding hierarchies and how they work in animation is extremely important.

If you haven't already done so from the previous Chapter 2 exercise, copy the Mobile project from the companion CD to your hard drive. Set your Max project folder by choosing File ...